Weakness of the elites no response to militant Islam

Protesters march through Sydney on Saturday as a wave of unrest against a film that mocks Islam spread to Australia, bringing hundreds out to demonstrate. Photo: AFP

Mark Textor

Returning home from a long and tiring training ride on Saturday, I was confronted by the aftermath of the Islamic violence in Sydney’s Hyde Park. A friend who also witnessed the aftermath described groups of young protesters seemingly quite happy after a “weekend outing of police bashing” in the name of a prophet.

These actions are disturbing, yet our politicians have not condemned them in anything but a generic way. There’s an unwillingness to tackle the elephant in the room. Many would see it as a failure to defend our values and condemn alternative ones. This is weakness.

It is another example of political and business elites growing adrift from the commonsense values of Australians. Last week, for example, billionaire Kerry Stokes said he was “physically repulsed’’ by the presence of US troops on Australian soil. This from a man I admire as a true patriot. Yet most Australians would not share his views on China. Many would see it as a weakening of our hallowed defence alliance with the US. Nor did any of Stokes’s peers care to differ. This too is weakness.

Similar criticisms were made about the United States President’s weak response to the American deaths in Libya last week. US columnist Mark Steyn wrote “On a highly symbolic date, mobs storm American diplomatic facilities and drag the corpse of a US ambassador through the streets.

“Then the President flies to Vegas for a fundraiser . . . ”. Again: weakness.

I’m sure many, in weakness, would like to wish away this tension and have the world at peace. But Australians know that what we value must be fought for and protected.

Former US president Ronald Reagan said this best in 1983: “We know peace is the condition under which mankind was meant to flourish. Yet peace does not exist of its own will. It depends on us, on our courage to build it and guard it and pass it on to future generations.”

Now this peace is threatened by what military experts see as an asymmetric threat “grown on a foundation of instability and religious extremism” that has “leveraged technology, strategic communications, and divergent Western policies and priorities to enhance both its credibility and efficacy”.

Our “policies and priorities” – our values –must therefore be very clear. And they must be defended, not compromised in the name of a fictional, temporary appeasement.

A recent NSW survey found 70 per cent agreement with the belief that non-Muslim Australians have to make “too many allowances for radical Muslims”.

Here, the differences were explained in terms of fundamentalist Islamic teachings being at odds with Australian law or societal values, and actively threatening the freedoms of others. This included the right to express views on another faith and its Gods or, as with the film in question, ignore it.

As one focus group participant said: “Accepting beliefs and practices is all about compromise. [Other immigrant communities] do their thing without threatening or harming other people, but that’s not true of some in Islam here. It’s so in your face, unlike other cultures, and that part is contrary to our way of life.” Last time I checked, no one was killed when controversial artwork Piss Christ was exhibited.

So most would demand that leaders do more than condemn the symptom, which was the protest, but actively defend and promote our values.

The last leader to do so effectively was former treasurer Peter Costello in 2006, when in reference to Sharia law he said: “All Australian citizens must adhere to the framework in society which maintains tolerance and protects the rights and liberties of all.

“If you can’t accept that, then you don’t accept the fundamentals of what Australia is and what it stands for.”

He added: “There is not a separate stream of law derived from religious sources [in this case Islam] that competes with or supplants Australian law in governing our civil society.”

Costello was correct when he said there were some beliefs and values so central to Australian society that those who refused to accept them refused to accept the nature of Australian society.

What if Saturday’s Islamic rioters were somehow “misunderstood”, or “alienated”? As Costello also noted, there may be those who are so alienated they do not acknowledge our shared values. In that case: “Such alienation could become a threat to the rights and liberties of others.” On Saturday, it did.

Most Australians still share this concern. So it is critical to defend our values and revisit their importance politically. And we should expect our national, community and business leaders not to wimp out on this task.